Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

This Bonkers 'Mueller Investigation By the Numbers' Video Trump Shared Has People Listing All the Numbers That the Video Leaves Out, and It's a Lot

This Bonkers 'Mueller Investigation By the Numbers' Video Trump Shared Has People Listing All the Numbers That the Video Leaves Out, and It's a Lot
Scott Olson/Getty Images // @realDonaldTrump/Twitter

Math is hard.

Make us preferred on Google

President Donald Trump shared a "Mueller Investigation by the Numbers" video listing "0 Collusion, 0 Obstruction" to his Twitter page.

The video also claims:


  • That the Mueller investigation cost taxpayers $30 million.
  • That the probe spawned "18 Angry Democrats."
  • That the probe took 675 days.
  • That Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued 2,500 subpoenas.
  • That the special counsel interviewed 500 witnesses.

Ignoring the president's jab at "18 Angry Democrats," we conducted a quick fact check.

Mueller's team has released three expenditures statements and says that a statement on expenditures from Oct. 1, 2018, through the end of the investigation will eventually be made public. Direct and indirect costs totaled $25.2 million through Sept. 30, 2018.

"On average, the office spent about $8.4 million per reporting period, which covered about six months. If the final statement tracks with that, total spending from the investigation would reach about $34 million," according to Politifact.

The probe took 675 days from the time it began in 2017 until Mueller submitted his report to the Department of Justice last month. The president's next figure is incorrect. The report itself states that "the Office issued more than 2,800 subpoenas under the auspices of a grand jury sitting in the District of Colombia." The probe did interview 500 witnesses "including almost 80 before a grand jury."

The president's critics replied with numbers of their own, taking him to task for his claim that there was "0 Collusion, 0 Obstruction."

The special counsel and his investigators found insufficient evidence to establish that either Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russians, but it doesn't explain why the president and his associates lied so much:

The President and White House aides initially advanced a pretextual reason to the press and the public for Comey’s termination … The initial reliance on a pretextual justification could support an inference that the President had concerns about providing the real reason for the firing, although the evidence does not resolve whether those concerns were personal, political, or both.

In Volume II of the Mueller report, the special counsel and his investigators examined 10 episodes of the president’s possible obstruction and made it clear that the investigation did not exonerate the president of wrongdoing:

“The evidence we obtained about the president’s actions and intent, presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

Mueller also concluded that Trump’s public comments could be considered obstruction because he weaponized his authority in attempts to discredit and shut down the probe:

“While it may be more difficult to establish that public-facing acts were motivated by a corrupt intent, the President’s power to influence actions, persons, and the events is enhanced by his unique ability to attract attention through use of mass communications. And no principle of law excludes public acts from the scope of obstruction statutes. If the likely effect of the acts is to intimidate witnesses or alter their testimony, the justice system’s integrity is equally threatened.”

The report cites “the series of events we investigated” that “involved discrete acts”––referring to attempts President Trump made to kill the investigation, such as when he terminated former FBI Director James Comey––ultimately concluding that “it is important to view the President’s pattern of conduct as a whole. That pattern sheds light on the nature of the President’s acts and the inferences that can be drawn about his intent.”

Trump’s “efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests,” the report says, but that doesn’t shield him from formal charges.

“The Constitution does not categorically and permanently immunize a president for obstructing justice,” Mueller wrote, adding:

“The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the president’s corrupt exercise of the powers of the office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) has requested a complete and unredacted copy of the Mueller report by May 1.

More from People

Pete Hegseth
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Pete Hegseth's Staff Broke A Priceless Eisenhower Artifact After He Demanded To Have It In His Office—And Yep, That Tracks

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his staff members are facing heavy criticism after they tried to move former President Dwight D. Eisenhower's nearly 100-year-old globe into Hegseth's office instead of waiting for professionals, and ended up breaking it.

The globe needed to be handled with care because it is a remarkably delicate artifact that dates back to the 1930s and was used by Eisenhower during World War II.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson/TikTok

Kate Hudson Gives Her Social Media Team A Hilarious Reminder Of What She Does For A Living In Viral TikTok

For a lot of us, creating a video for social media can be a bit of a project as we try to get it just right. But for A-list Hollywood stars? This whole social media thing is junior varsity at best! Delivering lines to a phone? Please!

Actor Kate Hudson recently gave her team a hilarious reminder in this regard while filming content for her social media.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots of Nathan Jun and one of the pamphlets in question
@nathancjun/TikTok

Texas Conservatives Are Up In Arms After Receiving Pamphlets For Trans Teens—Except Republicans Are Behind It All

Texas Republicans have lashed out after receiving pamphlets for transgender teenagers about gender-affirming care even though the pamphlets' origins show that the call is very much coming from inside the house.

Although the pamphlets distributed at the start of Texas’s early voting period claim to come from the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT), a legitimate organization, the materials are fraudulent, the group has confirmed.

Keep ReadingShow less
George Santos
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images

George Santos Just Threw His Hat In The Ring For White House Press Secretary—And The Reactions Are Priceless

Disgraced former New York Republican Representative George Santos was widely mocked after he threw his name in the mix to replace former White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia, who was fired after just five days on the job.

Santos, whose political career was derailed by allegations of fabricating his background, misusing campaign funds for luxury items and Botox, and leaving a trail of victims behind him as a known fraud and identity thief, has been soapboxing significantly since President Donald Trump commuted his prison sentence in October 2025.

Keep ReadingShow less